700,000 years of tropical Andean glaciation

D. T. Rodbell (), R. G. Hatfield, M. B. Abbott, C. Y. Chen, A. Woods, J. S. Stoner, D. McGee, P. M. Tapia, M. Bush, B. L. Valero-Garcés, S. B. Lehmann, S. Z. Mark, N. C. Weidhaas, A. L. Hillman, D. J. Larsen, G. Delgado, S. A. Katz, K. E. Solada, A. E. Morey, M. Finkenbinder, B. Valencia, A. Rozas-Davila, N. Wattrus, S. M. Colman, M. G. Bustamante, J. Kück and S. Pierdominici
Additional contact information
D. T. Rodbell: Union College
R. G. Hatfield: University of Florida
M. B. Abbott: University of Pittsburgh
C. Y. Chen: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A. Woods: University of Pittsburgh
J. S. Stoner: Oregon State University
D. McGee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
P. M. Tapia: Instituto Nacional de Investigación en Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montaña
M. Bush: Florida Institute of Technology
B. L. Valero-Garcés: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
S. B. Lehmann: University of Pittsburgh
S. Z. Mark: University of Pittsburgh
N. C. Weidhaas: University of Pittsburgh
A. L. Hillman: University of Pittsburgh
D. J. Larsen: University of Pittsburgh
G. Delgado: Union College
S. A. Katz: Union College
K. E. Solada: Oregon State University
A. E. Morey: Oregon State University
M. Finkenbinder: Wilkes University
B. Valencia: Florida Institute of Technology
A. Rozas-Davila: Florida Institute of Technology
N. Wattrus: University of Minnesota Duluth
S. M. Colman: University of Minnesota Duluth
M. G. Bustamante: University of Pittsburgh
J. Kück: Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ
S. Pierdominici: Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ

Nature, 2022, vol. 607, issue 7918, 301-306

Abstract: Abstract Our understanding of the climatic teleconnections that drove ice-age cycles has been limited by a paucity of well-dated tropical records of glaciation that span several glacial–interglacial intervals. Glacial deposits offer discrete snapshots of glacier extent but cannot provide the continuous records required for detailed interhemispheric comparisons. By contrast, lakes located within glaciated catchments can provide continuous archives of upstream glacial activity, but few such records extend beyond the last glacial cycle. Here a piston core from Lake Junín in the uppermost Amazon basin provides the first, to our knowledge, continuous, independently dated archive of tropical glaciation spanning 700,000 years. We find that tropical glaciers tracked changes in global ice volume and followed a clear approximately 100,000-year periodicity. An enhancement in the extent of tropical Andean glaciers relative to global ice volume occurred between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago, during sustained intervals of regionally elevated hydrologic balance that modified the regular approximately 23,000-year pacing of monsoon-driven precipitation. Millennial-scale variations in the extent of tropical Andean glaciers during the last glacial cycle were driven by variations in regional monsoon strength that were linked to temperature perturbations in Greenland ice cores1; these interhemispheric connections may have existed during previous glacial cycles.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04873-0

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